SHANGHAI: China stocks tumbled in late morning trade on Monday as investors sold shares to raise funds for upcoming new listings this week, analysts said.
The official Xinhua news agency said 22 new share offerings were putting pressure on pricing, with Wednesday alone seeing 10 new offerings. It cited figures showing that the average IPO gained 43 percent on its first trading day in 2014, near the maximum allowable 44 percent.
"The impact of this week's expected IPO listings has cooled the market," said Xiao Shijun, an analyst at Guodu Securities.
The CSI300 index fell 1.7 percent, to 3,487.40 points at the end of the morning session, while the Shanghai Composite Index lost 2.1 percent, to 3,215.77 points. The energy sub-index was down 2.56 percent at midday, the bank sub-index fell 2.2 percent and the financial sub-index lost 1.85 percent.
China's NASDAQ-like ChiNext Index bucked the trend to end morning trade up 0.04 percent. Chinese stock markets have experienced increased volatility on hyper retail speculation, with many trading days seeing indexes post major intraday rises and falls that are erased in the afternoon session.
China's blue-chip CSI300 Index surged 52 percent in 2014 and investor confidence in China's stocks touched a record high in December, reported local media. China CSI300 stock index futures for January fell 3.4 percent, to 3,475, 12.40 points below the current value of the underlying index.
In Hong Kong, shares of Cheung Kong Holdings Ltd and Hutchison Whampoa surged on Monday after Asia's richest man Li Ka-shing announced a restructuring of his business empire, a move he said was aimed at creating better value for shareholders.
The Hang Seng index added 0.1 percent, to 23,933.23 points.
The Hong Kong China Enterprises Index lost 1.4 percent, to 11,916.98.
The index measuring price differences between dual-listed companies in Shanghai and Hong Kong stood at 127.92.
A value above 100 indicates Shanghai shares are pricing at a premium to shares in the same company trading in Hong Kong, and vice versa.
Total volume of A shares traded in Shanghai was 18.41 billion shares, while Shenzhen volume was 7.92 billion shares.
Total trading volume of companies included in the HSI index was 0.7 billion shares.
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